Army Recruiter Saves Family from Smoke-Filled Car

While the heroic acts of military personnel usually bring to mind deeds done overseas to protect Americans, brave military men and women are often heroes even in their own neighborhoods.

One such hero is Army recruiter Staff Sergeant Estevan Azocar who pulled a husband and wife out of a smoke filled car on I-80 in western Pennsylvania last Monday evening, WNEP reported.

Azocar and his family were driving home from a concert when the car in front of them hit a deer and swerved to the side of the road. The car in the wreck quickly began to fill with smoke and Azocar knew he had to act.

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“It got to be a real movie scenario where you see them like struggling. They couldn’t breathe,” Azocar explained. “The vehicle wouldn’t open and I did everything I could to try to find something to bust the window.”

The family in the car were unfamiliar with how to unlock the car because it was a rental, so Azocar broke the window with a crowbar, unlocked it and helped the family to safety.

The Wilkers Barre Times Leader reported that Azocar wasn’t a moment too soon, as a few moments later a tractor trailer came barreling along and smashed into the parked car.

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If the family had still been inside that car, they undoubtedly would have been killed in the brutal crash.

“I don’t know how I went from point A to point B, but I was standing in the road and I ended up jumping past the median. I busted up my foot pretty bad,” Azocar explained, recounting how he and the family narrowly avoided being hit by the tractor trailer.